Lesbian Republican "Feels No Guilt" About Her Role In The Creation Of DOMA

The New York Times reports on Kathryn Lehman, a recently out Republican lawyer who in 1996 played a role in the creation of DOMA.

Today, Ms. Lehman, 53, no longer has a husband, and no longer identifies as straight. And she is a lobbyist for Freedom to Marry, which is devoted to overturning the very law she helped write, the Defense of Marriage Act. But Ms. Lehman is still a fervent Republican. “I’m trying to break the stereotype that all gays and lesbians, especially lesbians, are Democrats,” she said. [snip] Ms. Lehman said she felt no guilt over her role in the law banning federal recognition of same-sex marriage. Her motivation, she said, is her gratitude for those who fought for gay rights decades before she knew the cause was her own. If it were not for them, “I would not be living the wonderful life that I am right now with Julie,” Ms. Lehman said, referring to her partner, Julie Conway, a Republican fund-raiser, with whom she lives in Alexandria, Va.

The most-liked comment on the above-linked story reads:

If Ms. Lehman professes to feel no guilt in her participation of the creation of DOMA then it would appear she is unable to take responsibility for the fact that she has at the very least, aided in the impediment of, if not prevented entirely, the pursuit of happiness in the lives of many, many American citizens. Her personal circumstances, her late blooming awareness of her sexual orientation or her religious beliefs offer no excuse and should at no time, in the 1990s or the present day, have any impact on the personal freedoms to which all American citizens are equally entitled. Everyone is free to express his or her opinion, and that opinion may change over time, but no one has the right to suppress the freedoms of others and her actions in the 1990s did exactly that.